It is a well established fact that SEO requires deep technical knowledge because a website may have many technical problems that may prevent its growth. That is why it is important for webmasters to identify and fix technical problems of a website as soon as possible. Here are common technical SEO problems: URL case According to a study, most websites have upper case URLs, whereas URLs having lower case are user and SEO friendly. Tips:

• Always choose single case URLs (preferred version – lower case) for a website.
• Use a URL rewriting module to solve the problem.
• Understand the restrictions of servers.
• Maintain URL consistency throughout the website.

A www and non-www version Many online marketers still believe that it doesn’t make any difference, if their websites resolve with both version of www and non-www. However, the truth remains it is one of the biggest duplicate issues. Google treats a www and non-www URL as separate/different pages. Tips:

• Use 301 redirection. (According to webconfs, a 301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection.)
• Never use 302 redirection.
• Study – https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93633?hl=en.
• If you can’t use redirections, use Search Console platform to set your preferred domain.
• Use a dash instead of an underscore in URLs.
• Keep your URLs static.

Multiple versions of the homepage It is one of the most common problems faced by many websites. The problem is the same website resolves with its default, index as well as home version, which creates a severe duplicity problem. Tips:

• Use a 301 redirect to the duplicate version.
• You can also use the rel=canonical tag.
• Use Screaming Frog to find internal duplicate pages.
• Try different methods to find duplicate URLs.

Outdated sitemaps XML sitemaps are useful for search engines. These files help bots/robots to find all URLs present on a website. However, most webmasters create them only once and never update them. Tips:

• Always keep your XML sitemaps updated.
• Remove broken links from the sitemaps.
• Create dynamic sitemaps so that they get automatically updated.

Use HTTPS HTTPS is a secure internet communication protocol that is designed to protect the integrity and confidentiality of data between a user’s computer and the website. Tips:

• Understand the concepts of encryption, data integrity, and authentication.
• Know the process of implementing HTTPS.
• Use robust security certificates.
• For more information, study – https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6073543?hl=en&ref_topic=6001951.

So, identify and fix the above given technical SEO issues as soon as possible to gain prominence as well as rankings.

As an e-commerce store owner you need to choose a platform that helps in search engine optimisation, displays good UX design and handles every element of transactions. Here are a few reliable e-commerce platforms: Shopify It is the most popular e-commerce platform among online store owners. It is simple and easy to use and can help you  every step. Shopify provides:

• More than 100 mobile-friendly store themes
• More than 1,500 plugins and extensions
• An ability to sell products on Facebook
• Live support
• Tutorials and a community forum

Benefits:

• Helps to establish your brand online
• Provides instant access to hundreds of business oriented themes
• Provides complete control over the look and feel of the website
• Provides a unified platform to run your business
• Helps to manage products and inventory
•  Fulfils orders efficiently
• Helps to track sales as well as growth trends
• Can handle marketing as well as payments (Over 70 international payment gateways supported. Source - Shopify)
• Provides secure checkout and shipping options

YoKart It is a multi-vendor e-commerce platform ideal for online entrepreneurs. It is feature-rich, mobile-friendly and provides complete support to online vendors. It provides:

• Hassle-free set up and management
• Complete support for the major payment gateways
• Customising options
• Analytics tools
• Responsive themes
• User manuals

Benefits:

• Helps to generate online traffic
• Ideal for smartphones and tablets users
• Provides multiple layers of security
• Helps to maximise online product sales
• Provides a wide variety of packages for different businesses

Volusion It is one of the finest players in the e-commerce industry. It is widely known for its extraordinary features and currently hosts over 40K online stores. It provides:

• Customisable templates with WYSIWYG editor
• Facility to sync your store with Facebook, Amazon, etc. to sell directly
• Detailed guides, video tutorials, etc.
• Live support via chat, call, social media, and much more

Benefits:

• Helps in inventory management and payment collection.
• Helps in connecting with powerful tools and applications.
• Assists in marketing and growing your business.
• Provides built-in SEO management, newsletters and a CRM system for better store management.
• Provides a rich content editor.
• Provides secure checkout.
• Helps to upload images and customise products.

So, use one of the best e-commerce platforms according to your business requirements.

As digital landscape is getting more and more complex, maintaining a good conversion rate seems to be more difficult.  But, if you understand users’ preferences and the nature of industry, you can easily increase your site’s conversion rate and accelerate your business. Here are a few ways to improve the overall conversion rate of a website: Social proof According to a survey, people have more trust in their friends, family members and peer group than brands and organisations. Hence, as a marketer, you should use customers’ testimonials to build trust. Tips:

• Collect positive statements about your product or brand.
• Ask satisfied customers to give you recommendations/testimonials.
• Use images of happy customers.
• Use video testimonials.

Create videos If you want to forge a human connection or to explain your products’ features in detail, use videos. It is a good way to establish your brand and explain/inform your users about a particular product. Tips:

• Create a video that can define your brand’s personality.
• Always create a story based video.
• Use high quality software tools to create crisp videos.
• Promote your video to the top sites.
• Always provide the script of videos.
• Integrate videos on your website.

Simplify the process of purchasing According to a survey, people now have shorter attention spans. Hence, if your website has a lengthy product purchasing process, cut it short. Tips:

• Create short registration forms.
• Use fewer steps to complete a purchase.
• Optimise your website to reduce abandoned carts.
• Help users to complete the purchasing process.
• Provide online chat feature.
• Securely manage the details of users.
• Keep your website technically sound.
• Apply KISS concept (Keep It Simple Silly).

Use relevant call-to-actions It is important to use call-to-actions at the most relevant places throughout your website. It will not only increase the overall conversion rate of your website, but also encourage visitors to take actions. Tips:

• Use words that can provoke emotions.
• Colour your call-to-action buttons.
• Create unique and direct call-to-actions.

Bonus tips:

• Create high quality content.
• Optimise landing pages.
• Optimise your mobile website.
• Make your website fast and lightweight.
• Never use distracting images, unnecessary promotional banners and text.
• Maintain the overall aesthetics of your website.
• Don’t use too many external links.
• Reduce the total number of form fields.
• Rely on A/B and multivariate testing.
• Always improve the UX by making your website intuitive, fast and aligned.
• Measure results at every step.

There are no shortcuts. So, follow the above mentioned conversion rate optimisation techniques.

SEO is not only a mechanism to gain rankings and traffic for a particular website/blog, in fact, it is more than that. It involves the widest possible elements from website’s structure to content audit. Global SEO experts focus on different types of techniques to gain rankings. Here are a few unique SEO techniques they use: Link audit According to ahrefs, a link audit is an in-depth analysis that allows us to emphasise on certain aspect of link building, and it helps us detect problems or opportunities in terms of backlinks. Link audit Tips:

• Carry out backlink competitor analysis and anchor text distribution/analysis.
• Focus on the type of links (such as dofollow or nofollow).
• Use effective link audit tools.
• Focus on improving natural link building techniques.
• Identify grey/black or white hat link building techniques.
• Identify total number of naked and hybrid anchor text.

A/B Testing According to optimizely, A/B testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing) is a method of comparing two versions of a web page or application against each other to determine which one performs better. Of course, it takes time to carry out the process, but it is beneficial for websites. A/B Testing Tips:

• Always identify your goals before starting A/B testing.
• Create multiple variations and measure results.
• Use efficient A/B testing tools.
• Use 302 redirects instead of 301s while performing A/B testing.
• Always test your subject lines, CTAs, images, layout and headings for better website performance.
• Record minor variations.

Internal Links According to Wikipedia, an internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain. Hyperlinks are considered either "external" or "internal" depending on their target or destination. Tips:

• Never use many outbound links.
• Formulate a better internal link structure.
• Fix broken internal links.

Errors and warnings If you want to improve the overall performance of your website, you need to focus on the errors and warnings. For that, you need to fix HTML errors. Tips:

• Access Google webmaster tools to identify and fix HTML errors.
• Use the W3C Markup Validation Service.
• Understand the difference between 403 and 404 errors.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes)

Bonus tips:

• Always provide unique and insightful content.
• Use intuitive website layout.
• Use tried and tested call-to-actions.
• Write relevant meta titles and descriptions.
• Organise your content in a seamless manner.
• Use Google My Business (GMB) because it is an essential tool for small businesses for local SEO.
• Keep your site’s structure simple and streamlined.
• Keep your URL structure simple and user-friendly.
• Optimise your website according to your objectives.
• Keep an eye on Google search algorithm updates.

So, follow these SEO tips to strike the fortune.

E-commerce industry is getting wider with the span of time. In fact, e-commerce marketing is all about innovative strategies and plans of action to attract customers. Here are a few elements to consider: Content marketing According to Content marketing institute, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, to drive profitable customer action. Of course, it is a big challenge; however, you need to clearly define your strategy on paper to take meaningful actions. For better results, you need to:

• Carefully analyse current content marketing strategy.
• Measure the current traffic, bounce rate as well as conversion rate.
• Create and publish meaningful information for users.
• Review the results through analytics.
• Perform A/B testing on a regular basis. (What is A/B testing?) A/B testing (sometimes called split testing) is the act of comparing two versions of a web page to see which one performs better. (Source – vwo.com)
• Gather qualitative and quantitative data to write factual content.
• Focus on the psychological aspects of marketing.
• Take into account  different parameters of products and services.
• Adjust your content marketing strategies based on the outcomes.
• Use content curation tools. (What is Content curation? It is the process of gathering information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest. Source – wikipedia)
• Use these content curation tools: Pocket, Scoop.it, Feedly, Storify, Curata, etc.

Automate Email Campaigns When a customer takes some desired action like registering for an email newsletter, you should immediately respond by starting an automated email campaign. What is an automatic email campaign? An automatic email campaign is set up once and then automatically sent to a particular individual when that person meets a certain trigger. (source - Campaignmonitor) Fact: According to a study, email subscribers are three times more likely to share your content over social media than visitors from other sources. For optimum yields, you need to:

• Use an automatic email campaign to grow your business.
• Promote your blog posts through an automatic email campaign.
• Use it to promote your event.
• Include a compelling call-to-action to increase conversion rate.
• Measure your results.

Use multiple social media networks Most e-commerce marketers rely only on Facebook for social media marketing because it has nearly 1.4 billion users across the world. However, you should diversify your social media marketing efforts to gain more exposure and business advantages. For example, use Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and Polyvore. Social video marketing According to Wikipedia, social video marketing is a component of an integrated marketing communication plan designed to increase audience engagement through social activity around a given video. You should use video marketing because it is an innovative way to grab people’s attention. In fact, it is a powerful way to convey your brand’s or product’s story. According to a report, including videos on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80%. So, include the above mentioned elements in your e-commerce marketing campaign to gain substantial advantages.

Whether you want to improve your website’s page rank, build backlinks, attract visitor or amplify internet sales, you always need the help of SEO. It is by far the most effective way to improve the overall traffic of a website and achieve top position in search engine results. Here are a few simple, easy-to-follow techniques: Use Latent Semantic Indexing According to searchenginejournal, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a mathematical method used to determine the relationship between terms and concepts in content.  Content of a webpage is crawled by a search engine and the most common words and phrases are collated and identified as the keywords for the page. Hence, as an online marketer, you should include LSI keywords in your content to provide the right information to your audiences. It is also a great way to make your content more conversational. Use A hreflang tag If your website is serving international community, use a hreflang tag. It is a code, which helps search engines to understand the intended language and country. This ensures that your content is displayed in the right region. The hreflang tag also reduces the threat of duplicate content. Why should you use a hreflang tag?

• When you have the same content in multiple languages,
• You have content for different geographic locations in the same language.

Benefits of using a hreflang tag:

• Improves the overall functionality of a website.
• Makes a website user-friendly.
• Prevents duplicate content problems.

Improves crawl efficiency of a website According to online marketing experts and technical professionals, many websites struggle to rank because they have poor crawl efficiency, and the reason could be anything from poor URL structure to complex navigation. Tips:

• Use faceted navigation. (Faceted search, also called faceted navigation or faceted browsing, is a technique for accessing information organised according to a faceted classification system, allowing users to explore a collection of information by applying multiple filters. Source – wikipedia)
• Use infinite scroll.

Resolve internal crawl errors If you want to improve the overall performance of a website, you need to focus on eliminating its overall crawl errors. You can get complete data from the Google Search Console. Tips:

• Keep an eye on the internal crawl errors.
• Keep your sitemap updated.

So, use the above mentioned SEO techniques to increase the visibility of your website.

If you consider proofreading a time consuming and an outdated task, you are wrong. In fact, it is one of the most essential activities that needs to be carried out to make a piece of content flawless. If there is shortage of time,  you can use powerful online tools to make your content clear, consistent, well-formatted and of course, correct. Here are a few proofreading tools: Grammar Check Use Grammar Check to make your content grammatically correct.  It helps you to examine every piece of text to locate errors. It is flexible, advanced and easy to use. Spellcheck Plus It is a modern tool for writers whose native language is not English. It helps them to choose best words for a given context. It is free for up to 2000 characters. For extensive work, you can upgrade it. After the Deadline If you want to improve both spelling and grammar, you should go for "After the Deadline". It is designed to provide a holistic overview of your writing. It also helps you to improve content’s structure, flow as well as syntax. Proofread Bot Believe it or not, it is a simple, flexible online tool that provides quick and in-depth results. It is a great tool to check spelling and grammar. PaperRater This tool helps you to check your document for plagiarism. It is a great tool to check  your work before it gets published. Marketers use it to make their content original to gain high rankings on search engines. ProWritingAid It is a sophisticated online tool that helps you to improve your writing habits. It not only picks up spelling and grammatical errors, but also suggests alternative vocabulary, style and structure options. You can use it to identify repetitiveness, vague words, etc. Tips to improve your writing habits:

• Never use abstract words.
• Write short and precise paragraphs.
• Always proofread your content before publishing it.
• Focus on run-on sentences, comma splices, modifiers, etc.
• Use bullets instead of writing dense paragraphs.
• Always choose a trendy topic.
• Provide sufficient examples and illustrations.
• Follow grammar rules.
• Use idioms and phrases.
• Always use high-quality plagiarism tools.

So, use the above mentioned proofreading tools to improve your writing.

Social Media has significantly shifted the global paradigm, dissolved the boundaries of communication and allowed people to communicate in a seamless way. No wonder, marketers devise social media strategies to get the most out of it; however, they often face several challenges. Here are a few common issues and challenges that marketers face: Involve employees One of the best ways to market your business is to encourage your employees to promote your business. All you need to do is to ask them to share informative content across all the social media channels. Define your social media goals Set realistic goals before starting your marketing efforts. It will help you to achieve and measure pre-defined targets. Choosing the right social media platform Most people choose a social media platform without carrying out a comprehensive research; they follow a certain platform because their competitors are using it. In the long run it may prove counter productive. Hence, research and analyse before choosing  the right platform for your website. Monitoring Of course, consistent tracking and monitoring is difficult and time-consuming; however, it has its own advantages. Consistent monitoring will help you to re-define your marketing strategy and measure its overall effectiveness. Lack of content Some marketers fails to create inspiring content (textual and visual), which hampers their growth. Hence, it is important to invest time and money in creating and distributing high-quality and business-specific content. Response Due to time constraints, sometimes, marketers fail to respond immediately to their customers, which is a big mistake. Therefore, respond to your customers timely. (According to a study, 90% of social media users communicate with businesses through social media.) Be careful It is a fact that customers leave bad comments, aggressive questions, and harsh complaints; so, without losing control, respond them politely. Visual content Some marketers post textual content only, which attracts less number of people. That is why, it is always good to promote visual elements (such as infographics, images and videos) to gain attention. (According to study, People only retain about 10% of what they read. But, they retain about 65% of what they see.) Monitor your competitors Monitor and study your competitors. It will give you a wealth of insights into their social media marketing strategy and game plans. Develop a powerful social media strategy  Whether you are a rookie or a seasoned social media expert, you should always develop an effective and measurable social media marketing strategy that can give you an edge. But avoid over exposure. So, grow your social significance by addressing the above mentioned challenges.

After the emergence of powerful Internet marketing channels, most marketers have shifted their campaigns to popular channels, thinking that SEO is dead; but the fact is, it is still alive and kicking. According to a report by Forrester Research, organic web search or natural search engine results still  tops traffic sources used by survey respondents. Its report states that this percentage is growing at a steady rate and is expected to continue in the next couple of years. Hence, go for On-Page SEO to gain traffic. Here are a few basics you need to know: Choose the Right Set of Keywords It is important to choose the right kind of keywords  to attract targeted audiences. Of course, it is the basic building block of any campaign. Choose Good Domain Names Many marketers believe that it doesn’t make any sense; however, the fact is, domain names plays an important role. A sound domain name improves a website’s overall ranking. Optimise Meta Data For the maximum output, you need to carefully optimise each web page to make them search engine friendly. For that, optimise Title Tags and Meta Descriptions.

• Title Tags – Titles tags of web pages are like advertisements. Hence, optimise them wisely by following thumb rules.
• Meta descriptions -  Meta Description is a concise summary of the content present on a web page that appears in search results. Hence, optimise it carefully.

Create Unique Content Uniqueness is important. It helps in rankings as well as traffic. However, you need to pay attention to certain essential elements:

• Main content
• Performance
• Authority
• User experience

On-Page SEO for media elements On-Page SEO should take care of other media elements (images, videos, etc.) that may appear in search results also along with content. These elements should also be optimised.  For that, you should focus on:

• File names
• Alt Tags (An alt tag, also known as "alt attribute" and "alt description," is an HTML attribute applied to image tags to provide a text alternative for search engines - Bigcommerce)

Create Specific Landing Pages for products/services Creating and optimising a landing page is one of the best ways to attract prospective customers and visitors. The main purpose of creating specific landing pages is to inform and educate visitors about features and benefits of products or services offered. Sitemaps Finally, never ignore the site map; it makes easier for crawlers to index and find your web page efficiently. So, keep it updated all the time. Bonus tips:

• Keep an eye on the bounce rate of your website.
• Never overlook Google analytics, keyword research tools and monitoring tools.
• Focus on optimisation as well as user experience for better results.
• Make sure your titles and descriptions are accurate.
• Analyse the traffic pattern of your website.
• Study and tweak your strategies according to RankBrain, Google Hummingbird, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), Search Marketing & User Intent, etc.

The above mentioned On-Page SEO techniques are time consuming, but can help you to achieve better rankings.

• Have you ever wondered why do worldwide business leaders and marketers choose search engine optimisation as their marketing strategy?
• Do you know how search engine optimisation impacts ROI?

Let’s find out… Investment First and foremost, SEO is an investment that grows over time and improves the value of a website. It not only leads to high conversion rates, but also amplifies the overall credibility of a website. Sales  SEO has the ability to improve sales. It not only engages visitors, but also guides them down to the sales funnel, which is the ultimate aim of website owners. With the help of SEO, you can:

• Improve sales,
• Reduce attrition, and
• Improve satisfaction.

Marketing mix  Nobody can deny the fact that SEO gives incredible returns when mixed with other marketing strategies.  That is why most marketing professionals combine it with social media marketing. Buying cycle Many marketers still believe that SEO cannot impact the buying cycle; but the fact is SEO can increase sales without expensive investment. It has the ability to meet business goals, whether your goal is long-term or short-term. Facts:

• 75% of SEO is off-page and 25% is on-page.
• 91% of US Internet users search every month.
• Persuasive meta descriptions under 155 characters increase click through rates.
• The top 5 results get 75% of the clicks.
• 89% of customers begin their buying process with a search engine. (Biznology)
• Integrating PPC and organic SEO efforts results in a 25% increase in clicks and a 27% increase in profits over isolated or disconnected efforts. (Digital Marketing Philippines)

Pricing SEO pricing varies on its magnitude, nature of business, target market, as well as activities involved (on-page and off-page). If you have a big e-commerce website with thousands of products with global target, you need to spend heavy amount,  still it would be affordable compared to other marketing strategies. Importance Marketers should involve SEO in their online marketing strategies because it plays a significant role in:

• Website structure,
• Domain names,
• Content management system (CMS),
• Page structure,
• URL syntax,
• Usability,
• Site assessment,
• Web design,
• Landing page optimisation,
• Testing,
• Content management, and
• Fixing errors and warnings.

Combination of on-page and off-page Yes, SEO is a perfect blend of both on-page and off-page strategies.  This usually involves tweaking of titles, descriptions, improving site’s navigation structure and website designs in order to make it user and search engine friendly. Things to know:

• Search engines are dynamic (they change their equations frequently).
• SEO is an ongoing process.
• SEO helps to maximise traffic.
• SEO can maximise your business in minimum amount of time.
• Both long-tail and short-tail keywords are the important part of SEO strategy.

Hence, it is clear that online businesses need search engine optimisation to increase their exposure as well as revenues.